Case reopened

>> Everything cold is new again at the homicide squad

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

VENOR

Though their bodies are cold, their police files dusty and their killers uncaptured, starting this month untold numbers of murdered souls might finally get their chance at justice as the city police opens a cold case squad to crack unsolved murders. In a pilot project that will last at least “a couple of years,” according to Montreal PD homicide boss Steve Roberts, two RCMP officers have been lent to the force to try to solve old murder mysteries.
For the first time ever, our previously ultra-secret homicide squad is publicizing old cases and releasing previously withheld details about unsolved murders, albeit with limits. “I usually withhold the calibre of the gun used and how many times the person was stabbed or shot,” says Roberts, a 32-year police vet from the Point. The slight deprivation of detail is designed to weed out nutbars. “I’ve seen it over the years—some people come in and because they’re not completely there, they confess to a murder they didn’t commit.”
However, the two two-man cold case crew might find cracking old cases harder than counting snowflakes in a blizzard. “Back then the reports weren’t made to the quality that they are today,” says Roberts. “You go back 10 years and there was only two guys sent out on a homicide scene. Now I usually take out six guys. One guy’s job is to get the most info within the first 48 hours so we can do as many witnesses as possible. The crime scene is covered completely and we do anything you can think of—door-to-door, etc. In the past it was left just to the team who had the dossier to do everything, and a lot of times they’d miss out on witnesses.”

Clues blues

When many of Montreal’s murder files were first opened, the world’s understanding of genetics hadn’t gotten much past Gregor Mendel’s fruit flies and as a result much of what might today be considered smoking gun evidence has ended up at the bottom of the Miron Quarry garbage dump. “There was no DNA back then. They had objects that we could have gotten DNA off today. But back then, after having this stuff for 10 years, [other homicide detectives] came up and said, ‘Are we going to keep this evidence or do you want it thrown out?’ They never figured we’d get into DNA.” Since the 1995 Tara Manning case, which led to the first local murder conviction based on DNA evidence, crime scenes are now cordoned off from the media and combed by a crack team to examine items like a granny at a flea market.
Last year was a good one for our local homicide team, having solved 44 of 65 local murders at last count, a solution rate that owes something to the fact that gang slayings are down, due largely to many tight-lipped local biker members being behind bars. But still a third of this year’s bloodlettings could end up in a future cold case bin.
“Cases go cold for many reasons,” says Roberts. “Sometimes you hit the wall and have nothing left to do. A lot of cases go cold because we don’t have the time to work them fully.” The homicide squad, formed of two teams of 10 investigators, is frequently called away from their sleuthing duties to appear in court, fill out paperwork or do footwork for other homicide squads.
The good news is that Montreal’s unsolved murder investigations, which include the much hullaballooed killings of Sidney Leithman, Frank Shoofey and Dino Bravo, aren’t totally abandoned by new technology. Suspects can be hooked up to a lie-detecting polygraph device, and although the results are inadmissible in court, “We can eliminate some suspects with it,” says Roberts. Also, a computerized database can be used to cross-verify files. “Just recently our dossiers have all been computerized, so sometimes you start checking and one is related to another dossier and another, so all this comes out sometimes with the new software,” he says. “Back 10 or 15 years ago we were typing on typewriters.”
Cold cases and icy graves aside, Roberts has another wintry metaphor for his squad’s duties. “We’re the goaltender of the police department. There’s nobody after us. Homicide is the last line of defence,” he says. And the goalie has new pads. :